Inside Art

By Carol Vogel

Published: October 17, 1997

A New Balance For Calder

The National Gallery of Art in Washington is bracing itself for a confluence of celebrations.

To commemorate the centenary of Alexander Calder's birth (July 22, 1898), the gallery has organized a major retrospective, ''Alexander Calder: 1898-1976,'' which will be the most important exhibition of the artist's work in more than 50 years.

But Calder's birthday isn't the only celebration nor is it the only birthday. Next summer, the gallery's East Building, designed by I. M. Pei, will celebrate its 20th anniversary, and museum officials said the Calder show would also honor that milestone. One work commissioned for the building was the large Calder mobile that dominates its atrium.

''Calder is someone you think you know, but when you look at some of his early works from the 1930's and 40's, it's absolutely astonishing,'' said Earl A. Powell 3d, director of the National Gallery. ''The show will give a balance to his career.'' He added, ''One of the joys of putting together this show is that we have had complete cooperation from the estate.''

Included will be about 250 works that trace the artist's development as a sculptor. Some of the art comes from the gallery's permanent collection. It received 40 Calder sculptures and drawings from Klaus G. Perls, the retired Manhattan dealer, and his wife, Amelia, as well as the large stabile ''Obus'' from 1972 and 10 animobiles made between 1970 and 1976 that were given to the gallery by Paul and Bunny Mellon, longtime trustees of the institution.

The show will occupy much of the East Building, and works will also be placed in the public spaces outside. Other displays will be works on paper, paintings and jewelry, many of which have not been shown since the 1943 Calder Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art or have not been shown at all.

The show will run from March 29 through July 12 and then go to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where it will be on view from Sept. 4 through Dec. 1. The GTE Corporation is the show's sponsor.

Windfall From Mexico

Almost overnight, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has become one of the country's most important places to see Mexican art.

Last week, the institution announced the acquisition of 1,800 paintings and works on paper by 20th-century Mexican artists like Jose Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo and Diego Rivera, including the only portrait Rivera painted of his wife, Frida Kahlo. The collection, estimated to be worth more than $25 million, is from the gallery owners Bernard and Edith Lewin of Los Angeles and Palm Springs.

The Lewins have been buying Mexican art for more than 40 years. They bought their first three works by Rivera in 1958. In exchange for the collection, the couple will receive an annuity of an undisclosed sum.

''These works have great significance to our population,'' said Graham W. J. Beal, director of the museum. ''Fifty-one percent of all kindergarten students in the Los Angeles area are Spanish speaking, so there's no doubt this collection will have immediate appeal.''

A special exhibition of the collection will open at the museum on Nov. 23 and run through Feb. 16. It will include 90 of the best works. Over the next three years, Mr. Beal said, the collection will be rotated in a special gallery in the museum.

''Mr. Lewin is 91, and he had thought of opening his own museum,'' Mr. Beal said. ''But he decided to place his collection at L.A.C.M.A. instead.''

More Guggenheim

The Solomon R. Guggenheim just can't stop growing.

On Sunday, its highly publicized, $100 million branch in the northern Spanish port of Bilbao, designed by the Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry, is opening. And while the museum's top curators are in Spain for the celebrations, the institution has applied to the City Planning Commission to expand its SoHo branch at Broadway and Prince Streets.

The plans call for adding two floors of exhibition space on the building's third and fourth floors, which now have offices, and putting an 80-seat auditorium in the cellar.

''This is part of our long-range plans, an exploratory measure on behalf of the museum,'' said Julia Caldwell, a Guggenheim spokeswoman. ''We want to see what's possible.''

This would be the second expansion at SoHo Guggenheim. After closing for three months last year, it reopened with a new entrance on Mercer Street, an expanded lobby area and newly outfitted galleries to accommodate multimedia works with special technical requirements. The Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, who designed the original renovation of the building, also designed the first expansion.

A Double Change

The Museum for African Art in SoHo announced this week that it had named Elsie Crum McCabe to be its president, replacing Grace C. Stanislaus, who resigned as executive director on Oct. 1. Victoria Benitez, director of public relations, explained that the museum gave Ms. McCabe a different title because she would be more involved in running the museum, leaving the business of exhibitions to the curators. Ms. McCabe's background is suited to her new position. She is a lawyer who worked in Mayor David N. Dinkins's administration from 1990 to 1993, and most recently was co-founder of the National Urban Technology Center, a $2 million, nonprofit educational corporation that provides computer technology to inner-city neighborhoods in seven American cities.

Photo: ''Rat,'' a 1948 work, will be at the Alexander Calder show at the National Gallery of Art next year. (Estate of Alexander Calder/Artist Rights Society)